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TACTICS AND PREPAREDNESSMACHETE COMBAT | ALPHA & BETA STATES | PISTOL DISARMS JULY 2016 ISSUE 33

TA C T I C S A N D P R E PA R E D N E S S . C O M

S K I L L S A N D S U R V I V A L F O R A L L S I T U A T I O N S

BY: KEN JAVESPHOTOS COURTESY KEN JAVES www.shibumitactical.com

Wherever we go on a daily basis; whether foramusement or obligation, we typicallyencounter more than one person regardless of our desire to interact with them or not.

Also, looking at the trend in the progression from the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist threat and evidence from recent attacks

in Brussels, Paris and San Bernardino where the jihadists have deliberately selected targets with large unarmed crowds and used multiple attackers, the likelihood of having to deal with multiple threats to defend your life, your fam-ily or in the conduct of your protective mission is high. There are some training methodologies, tools and a tactical mindset that will help pri-oritize threats in order to engage them in the

most efficient and tactically-sound manner. When developing any training program (par-

ticularly one with as many potential variables as the situations referenced above) a balance has to be struck between developing the fun-damental skills required and ensuring the drills and exercises selected fit the anticipated mission or operational situation. For multiple threat training, much of this is determined by the placement and arrangement of the targets in relation to the shooter. Your operational en-vironment will typically dictate

Multi-Target

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WITH THE INCREASING ODDS YOU MAY FACE MULTIPLE THREATS—

ARE YOU PREPARED?

Engagements

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TACTICS & PREPAREDNESS JULY 2016www.tacticsandpreparedness.com2

the anticipated engagement distance and you can base your training distance off of that. For example, if you are going to be performing a sniper mission in the mountains of Afghani-stan you may want to set your targets 500-1000 yards away (or use reduced size targets if the training area has range limitations) and space them to simulate a group of Taliban on patrol or a mortar team. If you anticipate hav-ing to work in a crowded urban environment and are armed only with a pistol, the range of the targets would be reduced appropriately. Fundamental skills that can be developed at any range and for any multi-threat situation include the ability to transition between tar-gets laterally, in-depth (near-far, far-near) and in combination (diagonally.) For working ba-sic lateral transitions the targets are arranged on-line, left-to-right and in front of the shoot-er. A space of roughly one yard between the targets can be sufficient to work the requisite skills. What we are attempting to develop is the ability to rapidly and smoothly move eyes in front of the gun, shift the focus between the target and the sights, accurately engage and call the shots. This last part is where effi-ciency truly lives when dealing with multiple threats.

We can’t always afford the time to stay on a threat and “shoot him to the ground” when dealing with multiple attackers. Depending on the situation there may only be enough time to “check his motivation” with one or two rounds before moving on to the next threat, then coming back to evaluate if the

rounds were effective. Also, unlike paper tar-gets, we may not be able to see where our rounds are impacting due to lighting, heavy clothing or unpredictable reactions from the person we are shooting, so we must develop the ability to track the sights and make an ac-curate call on where our rounds went. There has been quite a bit of discussion over the years on how many times to shoot a person to stop the threat and the only conclusion is that there is no conclusion. Friends of mine witnessed an individual continue to fight af-ter taking two rounds of 50 BMG and a dozen 7.62, so I am a believer that constant evalua-tion of effectiveness is the order of the day.

Arranging targets in depth allows us to work the same eye-hand coordination of lat-eral targets with the additional benefit learn-ing how to pace our shots as the range in-creases or decreases. For most of us, if we try to engage a target at 100 yards at the same speed (flash sight picture) we used on the target at 3 yards the result would be a wild miss. This again helps us with the ability to call our shots and develop our acceptable sight picture and pace to accurately engage as the distance to the targets increases or de-creases. When working from near to far the rhythm should slow down and when work-ing from far to near it should speed up. Ide-ally, the targets would be in a straight line extending away from the shooter, but this can’t always be done with paper targets due to the front target masking the others, so a slight angle is acceptable. Using steel pop-

01 MULTI-TARGET ENGAGEMENTS BY KEN JAVES

05 GEAR REVIEW: VIBRAM FIVEFINGERS

06 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: RAISING A JIHADI GENERATION WRITTEN BY: JOHN GUANDOLO REVIEWED BY CHRIS GRAHAM

08 AWARENESS: APLHA, BETA, DELTA AND THETA STATES BY KEVIN REEVE

11 VBIEDS IN THE MEXICAN CRIMINAL INSURGENCY BY ROBERT J. BUNKER AND JOHN P. SULLIVAN

14 DISARMING HANDGUNS BY DORON BENBENISTY

17 IMPROVISED WEAPONS: MACHETE COMBAT BY ANDREW CURTISS

20 PROFILES OF COURAGE: YONATAN AZRIAEV

CONTENTS

OUR LAWYERS INSIST WE MAKE THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMER: You may die in an emergency, even if you follow this training to the letter. You might get hurt doing some of the exercises suggested, hurt someone else, or be subject to civil or criminal liability if you do anything mentioned in this newsletter. Verify that the ac-tions mentioned are legal where you are before even considering them. This is presented as a tool to help increase your chance of surviving natural and manmade disasters. While we guarantee your satisfaction with the information, we can not guarantee your survival or well-being. The author provides information about his experiences and preparations and gives general information. He is not an accountant, doctor, investment advisor or attorney and is not in the business of advising individuals on their specific situ-ation. If you need specific professional assistance, please contact a local professional.

©COPYRIGHT 2016 TACTICS AND PREPAREDNESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS PUBLICATION CONTAINS MATERIAL PROTECTED UNDER INTERNATIONAL AND FEDERAL COPYRIGHT LAWS AND TREATIES. ANY UNAUTHORIZED REPRINT OR USE OF THIS MATERIAL IS PROHIBITED. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING, OR BY ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM WITHOUT EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR / PUBLISHER.

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STAFF

FIGURE 1

FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS THAT CAN BE DEVELOPED AT ANY RANGE AND FOR ANY MULTI-THREAT SITUATION INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO TRANSITION BETWEEN TARGETS LATERALLY, IN-DEPTH (NEAR-FAR, FAR-NEAR) AND IN COMBINATION (DIAGONALLY.)

JULY 2016 TACTICS & PREPAREDNESS www.tacticsandpreparedness.com 3

OFF-ROAD JACK

pers or falling plates would allow the straight line configuration with the added benefit of not being able to fire upon the next target until the current one is accurately engaged. It can also be tactically advantageous to line up your attackers like ducks-in-a-row. Much like the Spartans at Thermopylae, if you can chan-nelize your attackers, effectively reducing the number of weapons they can aim at you and deal with them one at a time, the chances of success are improved.We can add complexity to these two basic transitions by combining them and arranging the targets diagonally to the shooter by simply increasing the lateral spacing of the in-depth targets in Figure 1.

The next piece of the puzzle is prioritiz-ing the threats or determining what order the targets should be engaged. In most “tactical games” or competitions the rules dictate the tactical priority of the targets; usually the clos-

est target is a greater “threat” than a farther target and must be engaged first (although Sgt. York seemed to have pretty good results going from far to near.) This is a necessity of a standardized system and essential for fair scoring, but does not always reflect tactical reality. Would an at-tacker with an AK-47 at 75 yards be a greater or lesser threat than another with a knife at 50 yards? I think I will take out the guy with the AK first. This is an example of a weapon-based priority system which is also commonly used. The enemy’s use of cover, concealment or angles can also be a major factor in threat prioritization. When pieing around an obsta-cle (Figure 2), for example, the attacker at the greatest distance may be the first one seen. It does not mean that you continue to pie un-til you see the closer threat before engaging.

Unfortunately, very few real-life situations are as clearly delineated as those encoun-tered on a range or in competition and it comes down to the individual shooter’s abil-ity to read the threat environment and rap-idly determine who gets the bullets and in what order. Again, much like the how many rounds debate, there is no clear-cut 100 per-cent reliable answer. It comes down to the shooter’s ability to evaluate the situation they are presented with and it is difficult to train with static paper targets.

FIGURE 2

PRIORITIZE THE THREATS- DETERMINE WHAT ORDER THE TARGETS SHOULD BE ENGAGED.

When pieing around an obstacle, the attacker

at the greatest distance may be the

first one seen.


MUILTI-TARGET ENGAGEMENTS

In Figures 1 and 2, you can see a point is reached where we have to move beyond the static range and begin testing, not only move-ment and fundamentals, but the shooter’s evaluation and decision-making abilities. This is where simulation, force-on-force exercises and scenario-based training come into play. The exercises should be as realistic and con-trolled as possible. Examples of very com-plex, live-fire, scenario-based ranges can be found as far back as the 1930s in Captains Fairbairn and Sykes’ work Shooting to Live. Modern non-live-fire systems include the Meggitt FATS used by law enforcement or the ISMT system used by the Marine Corps.

There are target options for live-fire range training on multiple threat engagements and although there is a myriad of targets out there, the two categories I will focus on are steel and paper/cardboard targets.

STANDARD B/C ZONE STEEL TARGETS:• They provide immediate feedback,

which reinforces the shooter’s ability to call the shot without looking for a hole.

• Allow the shooter to run multiple iterations in a shorter period of time since little time is wasted repairing targets; excellent for repetitive drills.

• Are good for long ranges, again reducing the time to spot or repair targets.

• Not affected by inclement weather.• Using smaller targets will immediately

indicate to the shooter whether they are watching the sights or looking at the target, as the latter results in a resounding “whiff.”

• Will last for many training sessions if properly maintained.

There are, however, some downsides to steel targets:• Unless you are using appropriately

scaled small targets they are not good for drills requiring scoring or qualification.

• Most will not stand up to armor piercing (even M855) ammunition or rifle fire inside of 75-100yds.

• They are heavy and relatively expensive compared to other target options.

PAPER AND CARDBOARD TARGETS:• Are good for drills requiring accurate

scoring to track progress or for qualification.

• If a standard target is utilized, times and scores can be compared to determine efficiency.

• Allows for accountability of shots fired.

• More target options than steel, including photo-realistic and shoot/no-shoot targets.

• Lightweight, easy to move and cheap.

For the minuses:• Additional time is

required to repair or score targets.

• Short lifespan.• Affected by inclement

weather unless protected.

The USPSA/IPSC and the NRA B-8 bulls-eye targets are good, general-purpose paper targets that are standardized (if not anatomically correct) and used for numerous drills and competitive courses of fire. Two others that I use on a regular basis due to their multi-purpose format, which allows multiple drills to be fired on the same target without repair, are the V-Tac Double Sided target and the Pistol-Training.com target. The V-Tac target has an advantage in that it is an anatomically correct target with a USPSA overlay on one side and contains four B-8 bulls-eye targets on the opposite.

The underlying skills for multiple target transitions can be developed utilizing dry-fire practice. Simply arrange targets in your dry-fire area to reflect the configuration de-scribed above. Targets of diminishing size can be used to represent targets in-depth or diagonally spaced if you are dimensionally limited and have to paste your targets to a wall. One thing to remember if you are train-ing with a single action or striker-fired weap-on is not to rack the action between targets. Due to the number of repetitions required it can lead to the development of a training scar. Simply concentrate on shifting the eyes to the next target and then smoothly bring-

ing the sights into the desired aiming area. The El Presidente was originally devel-

oped by Jeff Cooper and has been the stan-dard multiple target drill for many years now. It has been used by many training providers, organizations and competitions to gauge a shooter’s ability to move, rapidly identify, accurately engage and quickly transition between targets. It is a drill that is simple in concept, but difficult to execute at the highest standard. The targets are placed ten yards from the shooter and spaced one yard apart. The shooter begins facing away from the targets and on the start signal must turn and engage all three targets with two rounds each, perform a reload, then again engage all three targets with two rounds each. The clas-sic standard for the “El-Prez” was 12 A-Zone hits (on a USPSA target) in ten seconds or less. There are many different variations of

STANDARD STEEL TARGETS PROVIDE IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK AND LAST A LONG TIME.

THE ABILITY TO RAPIDLY ENGAGE MULTIPLE TARGETS, ACCURATELY, IS AN ESSENTIAL SKILL THAT HAS DEMONSTRATED ITS NECESSITY SINCE ONE CAVEMAN DECIDED HE WANTED TO TRY TAKING ON TWO.


MUILTI-TARGET ENGAGEMENTS

the drill. It can be done with either a pistol or a rifle and the targets can be arranged at greater distances, diagonally or randomly to increase the difficulty of the drill or to focus on different skills.

In order to develop the most efficient tran-sition between targets, there are a few things to concentrate on during your practice ses-sions:

LATERAL TRANSITIONS:• The eyes always lead the muzzle. We

must always positively identify the next target before moving the gun to it.

• Drive the gun to the next target using your knees to pivot the body. This maintains the shooting platform established by your upper body, is much easier to control and helps prevent swinging past the target if you try to pivot from the hips or shoulders.

• Try to establish a steady rhythm to your shots, not distinct pairs on the target with a pause as you move the gun to the next target. This will help you to gain efficiency by utilizing the time the gun is in recoil to drive it to the next target (this is more mental than physical.)

• If practicing on steel and you miss a

target, continue to the next target and then come back to make up your missed shots. It sounds counter-intuitive, but is actually the most efficient method.

PIVOTS:• Again, the eyes always move before the

gun and the feet.• Simply step toward the target. Don’t get

tied-up on footwork. You want to avoid stepping backwards into an area you haven’t visually cleared because this results in stepping in holes, falling off curbs, stomping on the family dog, etc.

• Always maintain awareness of where your muzzle is pointed. It should only be pointed directly at the identified target. Practicing pivots and keeping the muzzle oriented in a safe direction (typically either up or down) until directly addressing the threat is good preparation in the event you have to deal with an attacker while surrounded by other people.

TARGETS IN DEPTH:• Concentrate on finding your pace and the

acceptable sight picture for each target.• Pace should slow when going from near

targets to far targets and speed up when going from far to near.

• Don’t be afraid to push the limits to find the extent of your capability, track your times and progress, and work to smooth out the movements.

The ability to rapidly engage multiple tar-gets, accurately, is an essential skill that has demonstrated its necessity since one cave-man decided he wanted to try taking on two. Its relevance in the current threat environ-ment should be transparent. So, train hard, diligently and prepare for the worst day of your life. Ensure that you have adequate safe-ty training from an NRA instructor before conducting practice sessions on your own. 3

BIOKen Javes has over 19 years of military and security contracting experience to include multiple combat and contract deployments to South West Asia. He has served with Marine Infantry and Force Reconnaissance units. He possesses instructor certifications from multiple agencies and organizations, and has trained with some of the top military and competitive shooters in the country.

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GEARREVIEW

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In the early morning of June 12, 2016 Omar Mir Seddique Mateen walked into a night-club in Orlando, Florida and killed nearly 50 unarmed people with a rifle and pistol.

The establishment, Pulse, was widely re-ported to be a gay bar. Mateen, a Mus-lim, had made the hajj to Mecca and was

confirmed to have attended mosque three to four times per week. Mateen, who had been on a terrorist watch list, made several phone calls (to 911 and the Press) stating that he was carrying out the attack for the Islamic State (ISIS) and reportedly shouted “allahu akbar” (allah is greater) while killing.

Ostensibly unfamiliar with koranic man-dates for jihad defined by the Manual of Is-lamic Sacred Law as “war against non-Mus-lims” and “warfare to establish the religion,” doctrinal mandates for Muslims to lie to support jihad and hudud mandates for the execution of homosexuals, President Barack Obama complained about American’s Sec-ond Amendment rights and commented that it was too early to know the “precise motivations of the killer.”

To understand the relationship between

Islamic dogma and Islamic insurgency with greater clarity than President Obama dem-onstrates, Raising a Jihadi Generation is a great place to start.

Former Force Recon Marine, John Guan-dolo authored the book after serving as an FBI agent. Guandolo responded to the 9/11 Pentagon attack and was recognized as a subject matter expert within the FBI’s Counter Terrorism Division.

Jihadi Generation details several of the most relevant jihadist documents. It reveals a 2004 FBI warrant service in Virginia in support of a HAMAS investigation that re-sulted in the seizure of a cache of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood (and HAMAS) docu-ments. Most still haven’t been translated, but among those that have are some with great significance.

From “Worldwide Strategy for Islamic Pol-icy” we learn that in 1982 the Muslim Broth-erhood was working to establish an Islamic

State by controlling the local centers of power through institutional action. Among other things, it outlines a commitment to work alongside Islamic groups and institu-tions to cooperate on points of agreement.

Phases of World Underground Move-ment Plan begins with phase one: “secret establishment of elite leadership.” This phase has already been implemented in this country. Phase two “succeeded in … infiltrating various sectors of the Govern-ment.” Phase three was said to be “cur-rently in progress.” It was/is the “escalation phase, prior to conflict and confrontation with the rulers, through utilizing mass media.” Phase four is “open public con-frontation” utilizing “the political pressure approach.” Phase five consists of establish-ing an “Islamic nation under which all par-ties and Islamic groups become united …”

“An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY If there is a book you would like to recommend, or to contribute a summary, contact us at [email protected]

RAISING A JIHADI GENERATION WRITTEN by JOHN GUANDOLO

REVIEWED BY: CHRIS GRAHAM



North America” was written in 1991. It too encourages treason, stating: “The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Pro-cess’ with all the word means. The Ikhwan [Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civi-lization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its mis-erable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so it is eliminated and God’s [Allah’s] religion is made victorious over all other religions. It also lists 29 of the best known Islamic activist groups as affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood. Not only are ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), MSA (Muslim Students Association) and the oth-ers on the list, but CAIR (Council on Ameri-can Islamic Relations) was founded with HAMAS money by three executives of the Islamic Association for Palestine (also on the list.)

The “Implementation Manual for Depart-ments and Committees” provides a “direc-tory” of work to be done (1991-1992), the time to do it, what element is to do it and which element is to “follow-up.” Responsi-bilities are spread over the groups listed in the “Explanatory Memorandum.”

The 1992 “Islamic Action for Palestine” internal memo recognized the potential for rallying Muslims around the Palestine cause. It mentioned international conventions that the Brotherhood uses for long term coor-dination with various activist groups and it also acknowledged that the terror group HAMAS “was bred in the bosom of the moth-er movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“The Preliminary Vision for Preparing Fu-ture Leadership” was written in 1988. It laid out a “preparation plan.” It identified num-bers of people needed to prepare the “dif-ferent sites” as well as curricula, materials and “necessary tools.” It also identified the number of teachers and locations needed.

A tape of Zeid al Noman delivering an “Ikhwan in America” speech and answer-ing questions was also seized. The transcript revealed that the Brotherhood was “energiz-ing the political work fronts” and preparing for “special activity” [terrorism and insur-gency.] It also revealed that “here in Ameri-ca there is weapons training in many of the Ikhwan’s camps.”

Jihadi Generation provides valuable de-tails on Islamic law that permits the reader to determine if what is commonly said on this subject is true or false, as well as the

original Islamic sources for readers to refer-ence for themselves. You may have read or heard Islamic supremacists use the words: justice, freedom, terrorism, innocents, jihad, suicide, martyrdom, peace and human rights in their communications with the non-Muslim world. You probably recognize that these words are not used as Westerners un-derstand them, but are you aware that they are not merely lies? These words actually have precise (but completely alien contex-tual) meanings for jihadis. Jihadi Genera-tion reveals this context. The book provides great insight into the tactics of those who seek to establish a caliphate and enforce shariah. Sophisticated influence operations have been pursued for decades to mislead and co-opt. Armed insurgency is pursued by well-known groups such as HAMAS, al Qaeda, ISIS and Hezbollah. Individual Mus-lims are encouraged to carry out initiative based attacks similar to those of Paris, San Bernardino and Orlando in accordance with traditional Islamic dogma. “The movement” as they call it, provides both carrots and sticks to slide your community closer to their desired end state every day.

Guandolo’s book is short (less than 100 paperback pages) and easy to read. It is in-tended to be a primer for criminal investi-gators, but citizens will find it fascinating. You likely already understand the relation-ship between Islamic dogma and Islamic insurgency with greater clarity than Presi-dent Obama and his appointees have dem-onstrated, but Jihadi Generation provides great specificity. After reading this book you will be armed with facts that can be used to: motivate family, friends and teammates to take appropriate precautions (prior to the onset of the next phase of jihad,) educate your sheriff and vote officials into office who are enlightened and aware. 3

BIOChris Graham is a former Force Recon Ma-rine and the former commander of a mili-tary Anti-Terrorism Unit. He is a consultant for U.S. Government agencies providing weapons and tactics training in the U.S. and sustainment training in international “high-threat” zones. He is editor of The Jour-nal of Tactics and Preparedness and cre-ator of 30-10 (at home) Pistol Training… “30 days to join the top 10% of shooters”(www.3010pistol.com/recon).

“Chris Graham writes the way he fl ies: low, fast and hair raising. He’s one of the best brightest and bravest Marines I’ve ever known. Now he’s proven himself to be a sharp-edged master of suspense. All who savor a thrilling ride will get one in Election: Dezinformatsiya and the Great Game.” - Oliver North

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AWARENESS

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,

thy knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end,like quills upon the fretful porpentine. -Shakespeare’s Hamlet, 1602

Years ago, I taught an evening class seg-ment on shelters to 150 students at a remote lodge in Northern California. The

lecture didn’t end until 10pm. Afterwards, I answered questions, chatted with students and finally sent everyone to bed. But I was still a little wound up. Knowing I would not be able to sleep until I quieted my mind, I went out onto the building’s balcony to relax before retiring to my cabin.

I sat on a bench and looked out over the San Lorenzo valley. In the distance the lights

of Santa Cruz twinkled and I could see a fog bank rolling in from the ocean. The moon crested the side of the valley and I could see enormous Doug Fir trees silhouetted against the full moon. I saw an owl swoop across the meadow below, hunting some unseen rodent. The sound of crickets filled the air. It was a stunning sight and sound experience.

After a half hour or so I felt calm and com-pletely relaxed, so I stood and started to make my way up to my cabin about 100 yards up a fire break from the lodge. I walked slowly and

quietly in the shadows cast by the moon. Sud-denly, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I froze.

I took my flashlight out and scanned the ground, sure there must be a rattlesnake or skunk. Seeing nothing, I continued my scan on the uphill side of the trail into the trees. My hand holding the light froze when I real-ized there was a full-sized adult mountain lion on a branch of a Madrone tree not ten feet above me to the left. As soon as my light hit the lion, he spun and disappeared back down

Alpha, Beta, Delta and Theta States

BY: KEVIN REEVE

FREERANGESTOCK ARCHIVES


the branch. I saw the black tip of his tail as he retreated.

Needless to say, coming face to face with a lion was startling, though no great surprise; we had been tracking it all week. But to be only a short leap away from an apex predator was invigorating. It is always humbling to be in the middle of the food chain rather than at the top.

I slowly walked up to the cabin breathing deeply to rid my body of the excess adrena-line. The only person still up was Jon Young, a renowned expert on situational awareness and bird language. I told him of my near-death encounter. He whistled and told me that I had some helpers watching out for me. As I remi-nisced over the experience I mentioned that it also had to be something else. An interest-ing discussion followed.

After this event I started researching senso-ry awareness. The human body possesses and accesses many senses. We have been led to believe that these are limited to the five iden-tified by Aristotle: taste, smell, touch, vision and hearing. However, the human body has at least six different types of sensors in the skin that measure touch, temperature, pres-sure, vibration, itch and pain. The eyes make use of two different types of sensors, rods and

cones that function completely differently, and the interaction between eyes and brain is incredibly complex. We have many internal sensors such as hunger and thirst. There are many ways the brain processes input from the sense of smell, from pheromones and other chemical triggers, to common scents, and scents that trigger gag and vomit responses. Our ears provide hearing, but also a sense of balance and body orientation. Our joints and muscles provide the brain with input about our movement and contact with the ground, but it also helps us feel gravity, measure differ-ences in weight and space-time orientation. There are, I am sure, numerous other senses related to internal functions. Nausea for ex-ample, occurs when the body senses a form of poison. Many people experience a sense of dread or fear that they describe as a gut tightening or “butterflies.” This enteric ner-vous system triggers a subconscious reaction to other sensory stimuli.

My point is simple. Our bodies are a collec-tion of extremely complex sensory systems. Many times, the sensory input does not come into our conscious mind because we are in an agitated state. Many times we miss out on messages our body is trying to communicate because we cannot discern the subtle speech

of the subconscious such as the gut tighten-ing or the hair standing up on our neck. We are great at awareness, but not great at inter-preting and understanding the messages we are sent, but there is hope.

Most of us spend a great deal of our day in an agitated mental state called Beta. If you measure electrical activity in the brain us-ing an electroencephalogram, the beta state is a pattern of 18-24 cycles per second. In that state, we are processing data and cycling through what we are reading, replaying con-versations and carrying on conversations in-side our head. I would describe this state as focused on past occurrences and future oc-currences, but not on the here and now. And because we are cycling so fast, it’s difficult to consciously perceive the subtle signs the body is sending.

In contrast, the Alpha state represents a much lower number of cycles per second, around 12-16. In this state, we are focused on the here and now. We are paying attention to what is going on around us. In my story, I sat on the back porch for a long time, just observing. This process of sitting and watch-ing not only raised my awareness, but slowed my mind down to an alpha state, so the sub-conscious messages alerting me to the pres-

MANY TIMES WE MISS OUT ON MESSAGES OUR BODY IS TRYING TO COMMUNICATE BECAUSE WE CANNOT DISCERN THE SUBTLE SPEECH OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS SUCH AS THE GUT TIGHTENING OR THE HAIR STANDING UP ON OUR NECK.

FREERANGESTOCK.COM - JACK M

OREH


ence of the lion were much clearer. Had I not taken that time, I doubt I would have sensed the danger until it was too late. There are two lower states, theta and delta. Theta is a deep meditative state and delta is sleep.

I do not know exactly which senses were triggered by the presence of the mountain lion. Perhaps it was a musky predator smell or the halitosis of a meat eater. Perhaps my hear-ing picked up a growl or other sound, or some combination of sensory input. All I know is that whatever the combination of input, my body responded to the danger by causing my neck hair to stand up, a surge of adrenaline contracting the muscles around each hair shaft like the raised quills on a porcupine. Had I not stopped and shined my light on the lion, I may well have been jumped. I had been “the hunted.”

So what does this mean to our daily aware-ness? It means that we need to allow our con-scious mind to tap into our subconscious and pick up the clues we would otherwise miss. In Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman observed, “Intelligence is not only the ability to reason; it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and to deploy attention when needed.”

Most every religious practice includes some form of solitary meditation time. One of the most useful things I learned from my friend Jon Young is spending a few minutes a day in a quiet natural location, away from smart phones and other distraction devices, focusing attention on the immediate sur-roundings.

For me, this was critical to developing a whole range of awareness skills. I learned to achieve an alpha state, the key to awareness. I learned how to put myself into that state in a few seconds. I learned to read the baseline and recognize variations to it. I learned to hear the alarm system of the forest, the birds and their language. I learned how to apply the lessons of the forest to the city. A concen-tric ring in the forest indicates the presence of a predator, just as it does in the city. This daily twenty minutes of solitude and quiet is essential to my awareness.

One of my most trusted friends, a retired Green Beret (not the hat, the soldier), says if you have a feeling about something, a hunch or nagging feeling or gut tightening, act im-mediately. Do not fear social conventions that might make you look ridiculous. Act. Trust your body, senses and brain to know danger.

I often ask classes if they have ever met an individual who creeped them out for no apparent reason; they just didn’t feel good about that person. That is your subconscious warning you that this person may be threat-ening in some way. That reaction, along with additional information can help make a final determination. So many times I hear of peo-ple who go along with or give in to a preda-tor because they didn’t want to offend them, even though their body was screaming “No!” You have to give yourself permission to rec-ognize threats, be it a mountain lion in a tree or a human predator who is acting friendly. Gavin de Becker, in his book The Gift of Fear reminds us that someone “being nice” is a so-cial strategy, designed to get people to drop their defenses, and not a character trait, like honesty.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work around some industry professionals I would consider dangerous. What impresses me about them was that in spite of their high level of training, they still made decisions based on gut feel, intuition or body aware-ness. These were “been there, done that” guys. When I asked one of them why he made deci-sions that seemed to be based on feelings over logic, his response was that he never aban-dons logic, but when he gets a strong feeling in his gut, he trusts that over anything. This is the essence of body awareness. Trust the mes-sages your subconscious brain is giving you through that array of sensory input. Weigh it against logic, but recognize your body may be picking up on things your multitude of senses cannot communicate to you in a way that you understand in the moment.

Our bodies possess an astonishing hidden intelligence. We have to get ourselves into a state where that intelligence is manifest. Then we have to trust that intelligence and act ac-cordingly. This is how you dodge bullets and mountain lions, literally and figuratively. 3

BIOKevin Reeve is the founder and Director of OnPoint Tactical Tracking School (www. onpointtactical.com). Kevin has provided training to law enforcement, SAR teams and the U.S. military in the arts of tracking,survival, escape and evasion and urban op-erations. Kevin also worked at Apple Com-puter for five years doing organizational development and executive coaching, as well as platform training and curriculum development.

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At least 130,000 people have been killed in the ongoing Mexican “crime war,” and many more have been kidnapped or simply reported missing.1

Yet despite the significance of these numbers, official reports and news ac-counts frequently underreport the toll

of this war.As the above statistics indicate, Mexican

cartels and gangsters obviously use violence to further their business interests. Threats and violence ward off competition and discourage interference with transshipment points (pla-zas) and distribution nodes. The cartels have also directly confronted Mexico’s government, leading to a crisis of state solvency (the net result of capacity and legitimacy) that can be characterized as “criminal insurgency.”2

So far, the majority of cartel actions have in-volved small arms such as the classic cuerno de chivo (AK-47.) Mass shootings, grenade

attacks, dismemberments, beheadings and blockades (narcobloqueos) are also common tactics. Additional weapons employed by car-tels include both improvised armored fight-ing vehicles known as narcotanques and car bombings (coches bomba.) In fact, use of car bombs or VBIEDs (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices) is a tactic that has been em-ployed with varying frequency throughout the conflict.

CARTEL VBIED USE IN MEXICOVBIEDs have been employed in several at-tacks by cartels in Mexico, with the majority of these incidents occurring between July 2010 and July 2012. The first widely reported con-temporary Mexican car bombing occurred in

embattled Ciudad Juárez on Thursday, 15 July 2010, with four people killed in an ambush on the Federal Police.3 The last major VBIED at-tack of this period occurred on 31 July 2012 in Culiacán, Sinaloa. Other isolated VBIED-related incidents have taken place outside of this pe-riod, however. For example, during an Indica-tions & Warnings event on 14 July 2008 in Culi-acán, Sinaloa, two explosive devices integrated with gas cylinders (to enhance lethality) were discovered in a vehicle at a cartel safe house.

In our monograph Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico, we tracked 20 VBIED incidents between 2010 and 2012. Two of these inci-dents involved multiple devices (one in 2011 with two car bombs, and one in 2012 with two vehicle-borne incendiary devices).4 The

As candidates for the 2016 presidential election articulate their plans to address vari-ous challenges or justify their positions, we will occasionally visit the various asym-metric threats our country faces. This piece highlights an interesting facet of Mexican organized crime that may have increasing relevance as time continues to pass. – Ed.

R E P R I N T E D W I T H P E R M I S S I O N F R O M T H E C O U N T E R T E R R O R I S T M A G A Z I N E V O L . 6 N O . 6

in the Mexican Criminal

InsurgencyBY: ROBERT J. BUNKER AND JOHN P. SULLIVAN

VBIEDs

Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Lindsey Bakke and military working dog (MWD) Fien search a parking lot during an explosives detection training exercise at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS JOHN HETHERINGTON


VBIIEDS

Mexican attorney general or PGR (Procura-dura General de la República) reported 16 car bomb incidents for the 2010-2012 timeframe.5 Use of VBIEDs has virtually stopped since that sequence. The only reported incident since our analysis of the 2010-2012 incidents was an alleged CNG (El Cártel Nueva Generación) car bomb—actually an improvised incendiary device accompanied by a narcomanta (narco-banner)—detonated outside the Reclusorio Oriente correctional facility in Distrito Federal, Mexico City.6

VBIED DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTIONThe VBIEDs employed by Mexican cartels have generally been low-yield devices—more “bombs in cars” than higher-yield devices that take advantage of the volume of explosives that a vehicle (especially a van or larger truck) can accommodate. Accurate information on the design and construction of these devices is limited. Payload sizes encountered have been in the 10- and 16-kilogram range. Types of ex-plosives utilized include Tovex (a mining ex-plosive), dynamite and C-4. Electric detonation systems are typically triggered via cell phone activation; however, a Futaba radio controller has also been recovered. The cartels are addi-tionally known to possess detonation cord.

A glimpse into the construction of one of these devices is available in a Mexican Cartel Tactical Note focusing on a VBIED recovered in January 2012. This particular VBIED was meant for detonation next to a police station in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, but was seized before it could be employed. Photos of the device, hidden in the trunk of a vehicle, were utilized for forensic purposes; however, due to poor photo quality, only a limited analysis was conducted.7

A limited number of 60mm mortar rounds, claymore mines and numerous RPG rounds have been recovered in Mexico. To date, none of these munitions have been reported incor-porated into VBIEDs. Conceivably, hand and rifle grenades—both older muzzle-launched forms and modern launched variants—could be bundled together for boosting purposes, along with gasoline and other highly flamma-ble fuels (such as that found in the July 2008 VBIED incident), to augment these improvised explosive systems.

PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENTMexican cartels have employed VBIEDs for several purposes, as described in the following paragraphs.

Threats and Warn-ings: Cartel VBIEDs have been primarily utilized against Mexican military and police per-sonnel, the media and businesses to encourage or discourage certain behavior. The intent is to both threaten and warn against taking particular actions, in order to mo-tivate a shift to activities more favorable to cartel policies and desires. Ex-amples include warning military personnel away from cracking down on a specific cartel or threatening a newspaper from reporting on a cartel leader’s activities. In numerous incidents in which VBIEDs were left outside facilities, the detonations resulted in no casualties; however, the implicit threat of what would happen if unwanted behaviors continued was made clear.

Psychological Warfare/Terrorism: Implicit in the above threats and warnings dynamic is the use of psychological warfare (and terror-ism) principles to generate fear, terror and the ambiguity of not knowing when or if an attack might come. The creation of an ever-present feeling of imperilment induces high levels of stress. VBIED employment patterns represent another cartel capability in addition to the use of direct assaults, snipers, kidnapping and tor-ture to terrorize and resocialize populations. VBIED employment against a police headquar-ters building in April 2012, a city hall in June 2012 and the private residence of a chief se-curity officer in July 2012—all in the state of Tamaulipas—represents an ongoing campaign to terrorize public officials so they become compliant with cartel control.

Diversion: Here, a VBIED or incendiary de-vice is detonated to draw a police or security response and thus distract responders from another attack. This creation of a diversion is similar to the use of narcobloqueos (narco-blockades) to channelize maneuver options and is essentially an anti-maneuver tactic. Narcobloqueos typically involve large trucks or buses and frequently include tanker trucks that are set ablaze to complicate response.8

Anti-personnel Targeting: This targeting theme can be seen in both the initial July 2010 Ciudad Juárez bombing, which drew in unsus-pecting police and responder personnel, and later in the much more sophisticated attack in

Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, on 24 May 2012. In that incident, police personnel at a makeshift barracks at the Hotel Santa Cecilia—a small L-shaped motel—were targeted. Gunfire direct-ed at the motel drew them out of their rooms into the parking lot. A small device was then detonated in the back of a pickup truck next to the motel. Eight officers and two civilians were wounded as a result.

Anti-vehicular/Anti-materiel Targeting: In an incident in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, on 20 October 2011, a Mexican military convoy was drawn into an ambush in which a parked car on the side of a road was detonated. Because none of the vehicles in the passing convoy were damaged, it is not known whether the low-yield VBIED detonated prematurely and/or did not function properly or whether this attack was meant as only a threats and warn-ings incident.2 In another incident, albeit a quasi-VBIED one, in Ciudad Victoria, Tamauli-pas, on 6 June 2012, two vehicles at a car deal-ership were targeted. In what appeared to be an extortion plot, the gas tanks of the vehicles were ignited either by grenades or Molotov cocktails.

ABSENT PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENTVBIEDS can also be used in more destructive employment profiles than those described above. To date, Mexican cartel use of VBIEDs has been far more constrained than use of these devices by contemporary al-Qaeda-linked groups, as well as the bombings carried out by both Hezbollah and Colombian cartels during the late 1980s and early 1990s. VBIED patterns not demonstrated in Mexico include the following:

Mass/Indiscriminate Killing: VBIED ca-sualty figures in Mexico have been low, with one incident resulting in four deaths, another

A U.S. Army Talon robot approaches a VBIED during the 52nd and 111th Ordnance Group (EOD) Joint Team of the Year 2016 competition at the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center, Greenville, Ky., April 26, 2016. PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. BRIAN KOHL


VBIEDS

in two deaths and a further incident in one death. Upper totals for injuries have been sev-en in two incidents and three in three others. Numerous incidents have yielded no deaths or injuries. By comparison, the highest fatality-and injury-producing cartel incident utilizing an explosive device was a September 2008 grenade attack in the main square of Morelia, Michoacán, during a festival. In that incident, detonation of multiple fragmentation grenades resulted in eight deaths and over 100 injuries.

Anti-Infrastructure Targeting: There is cur-rently no evidence that purposeful anti-infra-structure attacks utilizing VBIEDs—with the intent of destroying buildings or other forms of infrastructure—have taken place in Mexico. The nearest type incident would be the use of arson by a gang of gunmen against the Casino Royale in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon (Aug. 25, 2011,) resulting in 52 deaths and over a dozen injuries. To place this in context regarding up-per casualty thresholds, the most devastating cartel VBIED attack of all time was an incident involving a security building in Medellin, Co-lombia, in December 1989. In that attack, a 500-kilogram VBIED was detonated, killing 59 people and injuring 1,000. This was one of the largest VBIEDs to be employed in the Western Hemisphere.

Suicide/Martyrdom Operations: As of Sep-tember 2013, no evidence has been reported of a car or truck driver engaging or even at-tempting to engage, in a suicide or martyr-dom-style operation using a VBIED in Mexico. The most similar incident may be that of the July 2010 Ciudad Juárez bombing, in which a bound and wounded man was dressed as a po-lice officer and used as an unwilling decoy in a “bait and wait” trap to kill Mexican police and first responders.9

PRESENT AND FUTURE USEVBIED use by Mexican organized crime car-tels has been dormant since August 2012, after

sustained multiyear employment beginning in July 2010. The reasons for this “strategic pause” in VBIED use are unknown. Strangely, the pause correlates with the Mexican presidential elec-tions at the end of July 2012 and the subse-quent victory of Enrique Peña Nieto, the Insti-tutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate. Also interestingly, an earlier period of limited cartel VBIED employment existed in the early 1990s. During that period, VBIEDs were used by the cartels against one another, rather than against governmental security personnel, the press and businesses.

A cartel’s selection of tactics is driven by the environment. Although Mexico’s cartels have the capability (both knowledge and materials) to conduct VBIED attacks, they apparently do not have need for such attacks at the present time. They are able to achieve desired results by use of other tactics, techniques and proce-dures (TTPs). Both sophisticated and simple variants of VBIEDs—i.e., both car bombs and “bombs in cars”—are better used when seek-ing to shape strategic space. That is, VBIEDs be-come more valuable when seeking to manipu-late mass opinion during a campaign to secure control of turf or a contested plaza. Other tools (such as grenades or individual armed assaults) are better suited to tactical engagements or retaliation for individual transgressions against the cartel.

Although the religious fervor of the Knights Templar (Cabelleros Templarios) cartel in Mi-choacán may at first glance raise the possibility of potential martyrdom operations (involving vehicle- or person-borne devices,) such attacks may not actually be likely. The instrumental violence of the drug wars originates in local contexts, not in the context of global jihad. Furthermore, narcocultura exploits religious imagery to sustain images of social bandits, not religious martyrs. San Nazario is a venerated icon of innate rebellion, but the local context does not mirror the Middle East. Beheadings

are used to dehumanize adversaries, not mimic jihadis. Likewise, VBIEDs in Mexico must be viewed in the context of the Mexican criminal insurgency and not forced to mirror global ji-had imagery that does not fit.

VBIED spillover from the Mexican conflict into the United States is a possibility. Current probabilities are low—especially since VBIED use has presently ramped down in Mexico. However, gangsters in the U.S. have already employed bombings, and the future may make key U.S. cities or neighborhoods within those cities into contested plazas, transportation corridors and distribution nodes. An awareness of VBIED potentials, TTPs and response considerations is therefore prudent, especially in the border zone and enclaves upstream where cartel-gang interpenetration drives gang warfare. 3

BIOS:Mr. Bunker is distinguished visiting professor and Minerva Chair of the Strategic Studies In-stitute, U.S. Army War College. He is coauthor of Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico (Strategic Studies Institute, 2013), Studies in Gangs in Cartels (Routledge, 2013), and Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency (iUniverse, 2012). He is also a senior fellow of Small Wars Journal—El Centro. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the position of any U.S. government agency.

Mr. Sullivan is a lieutenant with the Los An-geles Sheriff’s Department. He is coauthor of Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico (Strategic Studies Institute, 2013), Studies in Gangs in Cartels (Routledge, 2013), and Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency (iUniverse, 2012). He is also a senior fellow of Small Wars Journal—El Centro. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the position of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s De-partment.

NOTES:

1. Molly Molloy, “The Mexican Undead: Toward a New History of the ‘Drug War’ Killing Fields,” Small Wars

Journal, August 21, 2013, http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-mexican-undead-toward-a-new-

history-of-the-“drug-war”-killing-fields, accessed October 8, 2013.

2. See John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker, Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency: A Small Wars Journal—El Centro

Anthology (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2012).

3. John P. Sullivan, “Explosive Escalation? Reflections on the Car Bombing in Ciudad Juarez,” Small Wars

Journal, July 21, 2010, http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/explosive-escalation, accessed October 8,

2013.

4. Robert J. Bunker and John P. Sullivan, Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico, Letort Paper, Carlisle Barracks,

U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, August 16, 2013, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.

army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1166, accessed October 8, 2013.

5. “Grupos delicivos detonaron en México 16 coches bomba entre 2010 y 2012, revela PGR,” Noticias MVS,

May 14, 2013.

6. “Narcos Explotan Coche en Reclusorio Oriente,” El Diario, July 31, 2013.

7. David Kuhn and Robert Bunker, “Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #15: IED Recovered from Trunk of Car by

Police Station in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas (Jan 2012),” Small Wars Journal, January 14, 2013, http://

smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-cartel-tactical-note-15, accessed October 8, 2013.

8. See John P. Sullivan, “Spillover/Narcobloqueos in Texas,” Small Wars Journal, April 1, 2013, and Texas

Public Safety Threat Overview 2013, Texas Department of Public Safety, February 2013, p. 18.

9. Robert Bunker, “Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #5: Indications & Warning (I&W): VBIED Anti-Vehicular/Anti-

Personnel Ambush Capability of Los Zetas (Assumed),” Small Wars Journal, October 24, 2011, http://

smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-cartel-tactical-note-5, accessed October 8, 2013.


HandgunsI believe God sometimes knocks on your door. I also believe that once He has knocked three times, you should probably open that door.

Several years ago, I was at the CRI counter terrorism training school studio (then lo-cated) in the city of Baton Rouge, Louisi-

ana and one day I saw Officer “V”. I invited her politely into my training studio. I asked her if she would like me to teach her (for free) a few techniques on how to disarm a handgun and a knife from an attacker. She declined the invita-tion and continued on her foot patrol.

I thought, “Oh well, I guess she’s confident and she knows what she’s doing.” Several months later, I saw her performing her foot patrol next to my training studio. I approached her for the second time, again, offering her the same type of weapon disarmament training. This time, she very rudely rejected the offer and even exclaimed, “Why do you even teach that to other people? This type of training should only be for police officers.”

I explained to her that many citizens are

law abiding, often unarmed and should they ever face a gunman who is about to shoot them, they need to know these basic tech-niques. She didn’t see eye to eye with me on that and continued on her patrol. I wished her well, but I was stunned. I have trained many police officers and no one ever made these types of comments.

Ultimately, I forgot about it and continued with my business. The last time I saw Officer “V” it was when I observed her walking next to my training studio again and this time I told her, “I promise you it will not take more than just five minutes, let me show you one or two techniques that may one day save your life.” Again, she turned down the offer and contin-ued with her patrol. I remember thinking that she was a petite woman and that if somebody stronger and bigger attacks her, she would have limited defensive options. I thought to

myself, “Why does she keep rejecting my offer of training?”

Over the years, I have approached many police officers who gladly accepted the offer and received free handgun disarmament train-ing. Many stated that the techniques I showed them actually worked better than what they learned in their initial law enforcement officer basic courses. Soon after that last encounter with Officer “V” I relocated my company to Las Vegas, Nevada. After several months, I re-ceived a phone call from a good friend. She was a police lieutenant with the city of Baton Rouge. She told me that something terrible had happened. Officer “V” had been killed in the line of duty with her own gun.

My heart missed a beat when I heard this. She explained that Officer “V” was doing her off duty detail at the local Wal-Mart. She told me that a store loss prevention specialist had

BY: DORON BENBENISTYPHOTOS COURTESY DORON BENBENISTY

www.critraining.com

1Victim has tunnel

vision and did not see the aggressor.

D i s a r m i n G


spotted a customer stealing some camera film. He immediately informed Officer “V” and the thief immediately dropped the film on the floor and ran toward the exit. Once outside, Officer “V” tackled him in the parking lot. The thief fell to the ground with Officer “V.” He grabbed and pulled out her holstered revolver, positioning himself on top of her. The Wal-Mart employee tried to assist Officer “V” who was calling for help, but the criminal fired one shot at him, missing. Another Good-Samaritan tried to help the officer on the ground, but the attacker fired at him too, also missing. Then, as Officer “V” was pleading with the aggressor not to shoot her, he pointed the gun at her face and emptied the revolver into her. He fled the scene, but was captured within hours.

My heart is with the family of the deceased officer and her loved ones. The first thought that went through my mind was, “damn it, why didn’t I approach her again? Why couldn’t I convince her to learn this simple technique? What I wanted to show her may have saved her life in that situation.”

Many people believe that bad things will

never happen to them. To me, not having op-tions for how to disarm a handgun from an attacker is simply insane. With all the threats that we are facing today from ISIS to active shooter events, armed robbery, sexual assault and attacks on police officers, it is extremely valuable knowledge.

When you practice handgun disarmament, it is best to start with a rubber pistol such as a Blue Gun. You may want to cut the trig-ger guard off these training tools, because you must be careful not to break your train-ing partner’s fingers. Once you become pro-ficient with the disarmament technique, then the testing phase can be done with an Airsoft pistol.

When you’re practicing handgun disarma-ment with Airsoft handguns it is important to be aware of the additional risks involved. All participants and spectators should wear full head Airsoft protective goggles because the 6 mm plastic projectiles can cause great injury to the eyes. In addition, sometimes during an uncontrolled struggle to take the weapon away, the handgun can hit the face and break

the nose or facial bones. This training must be isolated from non-participants. Airsoft BBs can break the skin and cause pain.

You may want to wear gloves since all hand-guns have sharp areas and once you work up to fast disarmament and quick movements, the person disarming the weapon can cut his fingers or palm. If there is a trigger guard, the shooter must remove his finger completely from the trigger since the handgun will break the finger if the trigger guard is turned in that direction.

When you are training on weapon disar-mament it is important to train according to reality based standards. Don’t just practice the techniques. It is extremely important to practice all phases of handgun disarmament: before, during and after.

Before the disarmament, practice how to project a weak and compliant posture; some-thing that will instill confidence in the at-tacker. Also, practice how to look natural, but covertly scan the area to see if there are more attackers. It is important to rehearse in your mind how you are going to perform the dis-

2

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5 6 7

Aggressor orders the victim to turn around. Victim presents himself as afraid and complies.

Victim covertly takes a small step and repositions himself ready to get out of the line of fire. Victim is rehearsing in his mind the maneuver he is about to perform.

Victim steps rapidly and completely out of the line of

fire, positions himself parallel to the gun, ready to grab it.

Victim grabs the weapon with the hand close to the aggressor on top and the other hand underneath.

Victim turns the gun toward the aggressor 90° between the aggressor’s bicep and forearm.

Victim rotates the gun counterclockwise. Victim continues to rotate the gun until the aggressor cannot hold it.

YOU MUST COMMIT 100 PERCENT OR NOT DO IT AT ALL.

DISARMING HANDGUNS


DISARMING HANDGUNS

armament. Do not give away your intentions with the movement of your eyes.

During the disarmament make sure that your technique is perfect, fast, accurate and powerful. You must commit 100 percent or not do it at all. After you take away the gun, gain some distance from the attacker. Firing the gun may be an option if it is functional and you know how to operate it. Some people who practice disarms practice automatically executing immediate action on the gun with-out waiting to see if it is needed. There are also very effective techniques for using a handgun as a striking weapon.

While pointing the gun at the attacker, cut off the angles of any possible additional attack-ers. You might back up to a wall or a vehicle for 180 degree protection and scan left and right for additional threats.

Check the laws in your jurisdiction. After talking to my lawyer friends, there seems to be a general consensus that the minute you took the weapon away from the attacker you can-not shoot him if he stayed put and ceased his attack or is running away. You may choose to use deadly force as a last resort only if the at-tacker continues to present a deadly threat. If you can get into your car and drive off or run away, then “break contact” and get away. You are personally responsible for determining the propriety of your action (and inaction.) You must determine if complying with an attacker is more likely to ensure your survival or your execution. Both your survival and your liabil-ity will be determined by the quality of your choices.

If you agree that it is important to practice disarms, there are several common scenarios you can anticipate:

• a gun is pointed at you from the front• a gun is pointed at you from the rear

• a gun is pointed to the side of your head

• you are taken hostage where the attacker puts his hand around your neck and points a gun to the side of your head

• a gun is pointed underneath your chin

• a gun is pointed at you in the above conditions while you are kneeling or lying down on the floor.

Becoming proficient with all these situations requires a lot of knowledge and practice. You always need to assume that there are more possible attackers than the one(s) you see. The ability to disarm is based on the fact that initiative beats reaction. If you are close enough and an attacker’s brain is focused on something other than pressing the trigger, even for an instant, you can get the weapon from him before he can fire the synapse from his brain to his finger to fire. The premise of disarming is to move the angle of the muz-zle off your vital areas (and others) as close to instantaneously as possible and strip the weapon from your attacker with a disarm-ing technique and not to just rely on your strength. Spouses and kids need to know that the minute you are disarming a weapon they need to hit the floor. You need to make sure to point the handgun, even during the disar-mament, away from your loved ones. It is best to seek competent instruction. In my compa-ny we see the value in using Airsoft weapons for training. It is the only way to check if the “victim” survives. You either get shot or you don’t get shot. Our students are generally as-tonished by how good the results they can get are.

Before the shooting of Officer “V” we kept

all of CRI defensive tactic methods private. After that event, I decided to share with the public in a DVD series that shows how to deal with various types of hand to hand at-tacks, and many defensive tactics and tech-niques. Our video programs consist of hand-gun disarmament, advanced handgun disar-mament, rifle and submachine gun disarma-ment, strangulation and ground defense, knife disarmament and defense against improvised weapons. Please remember each time you see a police officer that they put their life on the line for you. Every single day they leave their homes and leave their families accepting the possibility they may not return. May the Lord watch over Officer V’s soul, keep her in Heaven and may He remove the pain and suf-fering from her loved ones, the people who loved her, worked with her and those that now miss her. I believe we can honor her by learning something from her experience. 3

BIO:Doron Benbenisty is an Israeli special oper-ations veteran and the founder of CRI coun-ter terrorism training school. CRI is a voca-tional school that is approved to accept VA benefits such as the GI bill. CRI has provided training for law enforcement, military per-sonnel, bodyguards, PSD operators, Fortune 500 companies and civilians for the past 16 years. (www.CRItraining.com).

Victim maintains eye contact with the aggressor. Victim pulls the handgun slide back and releases it (to be sure a round is chambered).

Victim maintains eye contact with the aggressor and conceals the weapon as he points it at the aggressor, and scans 180° left and right. Victim is now in control.

8 9

10

Victim takes the gun away and steps back toward the car.


If you look up the word machete on the internet you will find the etymology of the word “Machete” is“derived from the Spanish Word Macho, (1590s in pseudo-Spanish form macheto), from Spanish machete, probably a diminutive of macho “sledge hammer,” alteration of mazo “club,” which is probably a dialectal variant of maza “mallet,” from

Vulgar Latin *mattea “war club” (see mace (n.1)). An alternative explanation traces macho to Latin marculus” a small hammer,” diminutive of marcus “hammer,” from a base parallel to that of Latin malleus (see mallet).”

A machete is really a multi-purpose tool which can be used as a weapon. The machete appears much like a modified

version of the Kopis, Falcata or Kukri, the ex-ception being that the ancient predecessors have a more forward-curving blade. Today’s standard machete is a full bodied, medium length blade that may or may not come to a sharp point. Generally speaking, the blades range from 32.5 to 45 centimeters in length. Some often consider the machete a large

hatchet-like knife, while others would clas-sify them as short swords. Coincidentally, the English version of the word machete is “ma-chet”, similar to the word hatchet.

At the time of this writing, the Machete is often classified as an agricultural tool. The US government classifies it in code 8201.40.0000 for “axes, bill hooks, and simi-lar hewing tools, including machetes.” Other than being coded under federal legal code, I am not aware of a national law governing

the carry or use of the machete. Legislation regarding ownership, carry and use varies by state. The Empire State’s Senate passed bill S.3199A by a 54-5 vote margin classify-ing a machete as a “deadly weapon,” making it a crime to possess one with the penalty of up to one year in prison. That may be no sur-prise coming from my previous home state–“the People’s Republic of New York”—but in most cases, states consider the machete a tool and having one in your car or truck

Improvised Weapons

BY: ANDREW CURTISS CombatMachete



with your other tools would not generally put you in legal jeopardy. Check the laws in your jurisdiction for specific details.

Not only is the machete a great tool which can be used for beating brush, chopping kindling and even splitting wood, but it can also be used as a highly effective improvised weapon. It has many of the benefits of a short sword, is wielded like a hatchet or a knife and is often legally classified as an ag-ricultural tool.

WIELDING A MACHETEThe machete is wielded with a single hand. In general, the person wielding this agricul-tural-tool-of-whoop-ass will hold it in their dominant hand. This keeps the machete in the hand where the wielder can generate the most force and precision. The support hand is used to strike, grab and check any attacker’s advances and works in unison with the machete hand to cause the desired amount of carnage. Because of the size of the machete, wielding it requires more “arm”

than does using a knife. While this gives it similarity in use to a hatchet, the design and weight lend the precision of a large knife.

ATTACKSIn general, the attacks used are similar to the techniques employed with a knife. The de-sign renders the wielder capable of deliver-ing a variety of slashes such as downward, upward, left and right cross body slashes, inside and outside angular slashes, thrusts and “C” shaped hacking techniques. Some machete designs such as the Cold Steel Gla-dius even provide the wielder a great plat-form to execute thrusting and stabbing tech-niques. The machete is a great companion to the hatchet or the tomahawk and the tech-niques that are commonly used when wield-ing a knife can be modified to accommodate the weight of the blade.

Machetes are quite capable of causing slash wounds, but it is hacking where the machete has made its infamous reputation. It is for this reason that machete attacks can be

much more psychologically damaging and demoralizing than those of more surgical knife blades. That said, the technique is also modified. When one wields a knife most of the attacks are executed in as smooth a man-ner as possible. However; with a machete one must apply more force on the retrac-tion to load the attack as well as the follow through. This is because of the difference in the size of the blade. It is far more likely, in fact almost inevitable, that the machete at-tack will strike bone especially when attack-ing the limbs of a target. With more follow through emphasis than one uses with a stan-dard knife blade, machete attacks can easily sever limbs.

TRAININGBecause a machete is an agricultural tool, one may need no more than to take a jaunt out to the woods in order to get some prac-tice. Hacking one’s way through the forest or draws can give the person wielding the machete a great opportunity to practice a

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COLD STEEL LATIN MACHETE, SAWBACK. COLD STEEL HEAVY MACHETE.

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MACHETE COMBAT

myriad of attack techniques. Exercise cau-tion. Self-inflicted machete wounds are not uncommon and any one of them can be fatal or permanently debilitating.

TARGETSThe machete is not a knife. This thing can and will hack off body parts. In Sierra Le-one one will find survivors of the latest civil war. There are those who wear the “Short Sleeve” and those who wear the “Long Sleeve.” These are the Leonie traitors. Some are missing their hands and others the arm below the elbow. Then there are the Nigeri-ans. These poor souls hobble around miss-ing a leg. They were the corrupt Nigerian UN Peace Keepers who came into Sierra Le-one and abused the locals. Many never got to leave and were stranded by their units. All of these wacky wounds were caused by ma-chetes. That being said, the machete is also highly capable of splitting the human skull or decapitating. This is a true melee weapon.

Let’s take a moment to identify some high pay-off targets on the human anatomy when using a machete as a weapon:

The Neck: The neck is extremely high pay-off because it’s mostly comprised of soft tis-sue with the exception of the cervical spine. The Carotid artery and Jugular vein are also located bilaterally on the neck. So this is a target that one good whack can cause im-minent and swift death via either paralysis or exsanguination (the draining of blood.)

The Upper Arm (Biceps Brachialis) – This is just a brutal target in that a powerful hack here can not only sever the brachial artery and break the bone off, but also the loss of the limb can just wreck someone psychologically.

Below the Elbow to Wrist – Much like the upper arm this has high value in both physi-cal and psychological damage and is likely

to disarm an attacker wielding a weapon in this hand.

Below the Knee – Lots of blood loss, psy-chologically devastating and debilitating in that taking a man’s legs out from under him will send him to the ground and can render him useless in battle.

Spine – The spine is essentially the circuit board for the body. This is the hard wiring that runs throughout the body. Severing one’s spine can not only cause paralysis, but also shut down key organs which are funda-mental to sustaining human life such as the brain, heart and lungs.

WHY OWN A MACHETE?Perhaps the biggest and most common rea-son to own a machete is because in most non-authoritarian locations they are legal for ownership and use. They are agricultural tools. They are often cheap, but effective and are relatively inexpensive compared to replica and collector swords. They were designed to do tasks that other more ex-pensive blades would be damaged doing, such as wood splitting and brush cutting. Machetes are silent, never run out of ammo and never jam. They can be practical in con-fined spaces where a sword would be too long and in more open places where one can make use of the reach advantage over knives. Of course we can’t forget that ma-chetes are just plain badass!

You can’t overlook the possibility of using this great agricultural tool as an im-provised weapon. Before ordering the lat-est model of Cold Steel’s or anyone else’s machete design, first research your state’s legislation regarding carrying such items. I recommend you use the machete in its’ in-tended tool role on a day to day carry ba-sis. The presentation of a carried machete for any other purpose than its legal coded

classification could lead to prosecution. The Machete is a highly effective and ca-

pable tool and weapon. There are several companies today cashing in on the “Zombie Apocalypse” scenario and Walking Dead cul-ture. This genre has also stemmed the wide variety of new modern machete designs. Hit cable series’ such as Rome and Spartacus have also inspired the development of ma-chetes that are created in the likeness of the swords wielded in the shows; as well as the replication of other swords from antiquity. In other words, these designer machetes are really stylish agricultural tools.

The machete is expanding well beyond the jungles of Africa and South and Central America. The tool can serve you or it can serve your attacker. It pays to be skilled in its’ use and have detailed knowledge of its’ capabilities. Never underestimate its’ lethal-ity. In many places you can openly carry these versatile tools as long as you are carry-ing it as a tool. If facing a machete wielding attacker, do not hesitate to take appropriate action. 3

BIOAndrew Curtiss is a professional Mixed Martial Arts Athlete. He has been training for over 30 years and has held national Karate titles, been a world runner-up kick boxer and has advanced black belt rankings in several martial arts. He has authored three books. His book Combat Application Techniques: Principles of Destruction was based on a program he developed for his A Team at the 3rd Spe-cial Forces Group. He is a defensive tactics instructor for the U.S. Department of State. He is the writer of the Fort Worth Martial Arts and Fort Worth Libertarian Examiner and operates the website www.knife-and-h2hcombat.com.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE LETHALITY OF THE MACHETE. IT IS A HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AND CAPABLE TOOL AND WEAPON.

ESEE LITE MACHETE.

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W.ESEEKNIVES.COM


On Tuesday, March 8, 2016, Abd al-Rah-man Radad walked into a liquor store. At around mid-day, terrorists launched

coordinated knife attacks (and one active-shooter attack) in several Israeli cities.

Radad produced a large kitchen knife and jumped on the back of 40-year old Yo-natan Azriaev, slashing and stabbing him repeatedly. With no Second Amendment in Israel, Azriaev was unarmed and sus-tained multiple bloody wounds. Azriaev quickly realized he had two choices: acqui-esce to death and become the latest victim

of the jihad or fight like a cornered animal. Yonatan Azriaev flung Radad off his back,

pulled the kitchen knife from his own neck and stabbed his attacker to death. Azriaev’s brave actions prevented Radad from killing him and ended the man’s attack before he was able to move on to another victim. Police arrived and are alleged to have put at least one “safety shot” into the terrorist to guaran-tee the safety of responders that had to ap-proach the body. Yonatan Azriaev is expected to have a full and speedy recovery. Radad was celebrated as a “martyr.” 3

P R O F I L E S O F C O U R A G EWhether you are disarmed facing a knife wielding jihadist, facing the challenges of providing for your family or looking for the courage to speak an unpopular truth, there are times when each of us can use a little inspiration. Sometimes it helps to put your challenges in perspective. Sometimes it’s encouraging to see how selfless human beings can be. This account is taken from multiple open source reports.

YONATAN AZRIAEV

AZRIAEV SUSTAINED MULTIPLE BODY WOUNDS. HE PULLED THE KNIFE FROM HIS OWN NECK AND FACED HIS ATTACKER...

machete combat | alpha & beta states | pistol … · tactics andpreparedness machete combat |...

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